An unusual palm reading experience in Thailand

Many of us are guilty of putting off going to the doctors for as long as possible, despite health services being extremely accessible to most of us. Professional healthcare is something that is easy to take for granted.

But millions of people worldwide are not lucky enough to have a doctors surgery they can easily attend, or afford to go to. In Thailand, statistics show that less than 2% of people get an annual check-up.

Instead, they rely on fortune tellers to tell them the fate of their health, due to both spiritual beliefs and being much more affordable.

But the Thai Health Promotion Foundation wanted to change things. To educate people of the benefits of health checkups, it used clever experiential marketing.

The Foundation saw a big opportunity in the fortune-telling business, and so it created ‘Doctor Fortune Teller’.

The Thai Health Promotion Foundation set up a free fortune-telling service and then invited passers-by to get involved. But when the teller started to look into their eyes and throat, the customers soon realised they weren’t there for an ordinary palm reading. Far from it.

Instead, they received a quick demonstration of how to carry out a simple health check, which they could then perform themselves in the future.

This is a great example of a targeted experiential stunt. The Thai Health Promotion Foundation cleverly jumped on the back of something already hugely popular amongst Thai people to get across the importance of health checks. In doing so, they caught attention through the power of surprise.

This isn’t the first time an experiential campaign has been disguised as an ordinary shop or service: take a look at when Monopoly played a prank on unsuspecting home buyers. This approach not only made for highly amusing – and shareable – social content, but it also left behind a lasting memory.